Room 8 & 9 Object Highlights

Letter Opener and Seal belonging to John Wesley

Communication over a distance was only possible by letter in Wesley’s day.

John Wesley wrote and received hundreds of letters. Seals were used with hot wax to keep the letter closed until it reached its destination.  These are the two rooms in which John Wesley stayed when he was at the New Room. Look out for the windowsill which he had created in the bedroom. He thought sitting down at a desk for any length of time was not good for you and so he would sometimes stand when he was writing and use the windowsill as a base to write on.

The preachers who stayed in these rooms spent the day either studying or, more commonly, out preaching. Sometimes they might be gone for a few days or longer as they travelled around. A significant number of the preachers were at some stage based in the Bristol circuit and therefore had the New Room as their base for a time.